The Annual CQ-WE (Western Electric) Contest is open to all Radio Amateurs.
The objective is to contact, via ham radio, as many Radio Amateurs as
possible who currently work for, did work for, or are retired from,
any part of the pre-divestiture "Bell System", or any
company that was created from the separated parts of what was once the
"Bell System". This includes AT&T, Bell Labs,
Western Electric, Local Phone Companies, and many other companies
that are/were part of the "Bell System". Contract employees
of these companies are considered to be working for the Bell System
for purposes of this contest.

The contest shall be held the second full weekend in November, from 1900Z
Saturday through 0500Z Monday. See the
Contest Schedule
section below for more detailed information about the various contest
times.

THE CONTEST BANDS

Only contacts within the following bands will count for contest credit:
160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m, 6m, 2m, 70cm.

THE EXCHANGE

A contest exchange must include the following information:

Callsigns

First Names

Location Codes:

Bell System Participants: Visit our
Location Code page
and use the instructions given there to determine your Location Code.

Non-Bell Participants: Use Location Code 'ZZ'.

Years of Service:

Bell System Participants: Use your
Years of Service, the number of years you
have been employed, or were employed, within the Bell System.
Alternatively, if you desire, you may opt to use the formula for non-Bell
participants, described below.

Non-Bell Participants: Use the number of CQ-WE contests you have
participated in, counting those past contests for which you submitted
a log, plus the current contest. (For non-Bell participants in 2015,
this number will fall between 1 and 8.)

EXAMPLE: W4BXI de K8NU CARL CB 23

THE BASICS

Each entry submitted must be for an individual operator, using one transmitter at a time.

Bell System Participants may contact anyone.

Non-Bell System Participants may only contact Bell System Participants.

A station may be worked in any and/or all of three categories (CW, PHONE, DIGITAL) for credit.

The DIGITAL category includes non-verbal and non-CW contacts made using a form of digital modulation (for example: RTTY, AMTOR, PSK, and D-STAR data*).

*

To be valid, D-STAR contacts, like all CQ-WE contacts, must be point-to-point and not involve a repeater or gateway.

GENERAL SCORING RULES

Each station may be worked once per band and category for contest credit.

Each of the three categories (CW, PHONE, DIGITAL) is scored separately.

The number of points for each contact is the "Years of Service" number received in the exchange.

To create an additional incentive for working a large number of locations,
a Location Multiplier is used.
This multiplier is the number of distinct Location Codes contacted in
a given catagory.

One's score for each category is determined by multiplying the sum of
the points (i.e., the Years of Service associated with each contact made in
that category) by the Location Multiplier for that category.

To encourage log submissions that lend themselves to computer validation,
if one's contest logs are submitted in the format produced by the current
year's CQ-WE contest logger, and in a form that may be read and processed
electronically, 100 incentive points will be added to the CW score of those
making at least five CW contacts, and 100 incentive points will be added to
the PHONE score of those making at least five PHONE contacts.
No incentive points will accrue for DIGITAL scores.

One's Total Score is the sum of the three category scores.

MISCELLANY

All logs must be kept in UTC (Zulu) time.

You may not change your contest information (Name, Location Code, Years of Service) during the contest.

Only Published Location Codes may be used
in the contest and when calculating a Location Code multiplier.
A separate Location Check Sheet
is required for each category being scored.
All Location Codes being claimed in each multiplier must be noted on the
check sheet for that category by entering the call sign of the first station
worked from each location beside that contact's Location Code.

Simplex operation only. Contacts made through repeaters, digipeaters,
or gateways are not permitted.

Cross-band contacts are not permitted.

Soliciting contacts by non-Amateur Radio means (for example, Internet or Telephone) during the contest is not permitted.

Working the same station consecutively on the same band in different categories is not allowed.

AWARDS

Awards will be issued for the following categories:

Works Location High Top-5 Combined Score ¹

Works Location High Participation ¹

Individual High Total Score

Individual High CW Score

Individual High Phone Score

Individual High Digital Score

Individual High QRP Score ²

Individual High Active Bell System Employee or Retiree Score ³

Individual Non-Bell System Participant High Total Score

(And maybe a few others for 'Special Effort')

¹

Only location codes representing actual physical facilities are eligible for this award.

²

QRP status may be claimed by those operating the entire contest using a PEP power output of no more than 5 watts in the CW and DIGITAL categories, and no more than 10 watts in the PHONE category.

³

Whichever category serves to complement the "High Total Score" winner, from those self-designating themselves as such on the submitted forms.

A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to every entrant who
submits a properly completed entry form and who has made at least five valid
contacts.

The most current forms should be used, as scoring rules, location codes, and requested information do change from contest to contest.

All forms must be sent as email Attachments. Use the body of the message for any personal comments.

Code the contest name and year, your callsign, and your exchange, in the Subject line of the email. Example: CQ-WE 2015 - W2EQ - Tom MT 14

All filenames must start with the operator's call sign and end with the appropriate file extension (Example: W2EQ.PDF, KD8WK-SUMMARY.TXT).
The material may be coalesced into one file, or sent as multiple attachments,
but if more than one attachment is used, each must have a unique name.

Files that are sent using a filename other than the operator's call sign
are subject to being classified as checklogs.

Submission of Paper Logs:

Handwritten or printed logs containing all the required contest information are acceptable for a CQ-WE contest submission.

Entrants must use official Contest Forms or an acceptable facsimile.

The most current forms should be used, as scoring rules, location codes, and requested information do change from contest to contest.

FORMS

Here are copies of all the forms needed to participate in the contest.
Only these forms should be used for filing your 2015 results:

REMINDER: The Sunday and Monday 0100-0500Z times are really Saturday and Sunday evening in the States!

SUGGESTED DIGITAL SCHEDULE

(These times are merely suggestions designed to enhance efficiency.
Digital contacts may be made at any time during the CW/DIGITAL portion
of the contest. For HF digital, note that the suggested digital
frequencies have been located adjacent to the upper edge of the suggested
CW frequencies, so that they may be easily checked for activity throughout
the contest.)